'Thailand top destination in SE Asia in the EV and battery space’

It seeks to strengthen the region's EV industry, including making it more sustainable and independent.

The Nation talked exclusively with Paul Lock, chairman and managing director of PAM, about the potential for mining in the region, as well as his ambitious plans in Thailand.

• What is the current outlook for the battery industry?

The battery industry is quite complex, with numerous components.

If we break it into three basic parts, there is upstream exploration, midstream chemical production and then downstream battery production which goes to EV.

At the moment, the most significant constraint to electrification is a lack of lithium raw material. As a result, there is a lot of exploration going on around the world. Investors are extremely interested in this.

The majority of midstream conversion is currently being performed in China.

However, there is a lot of expansion activity outside of China by both Chinese and foreign companies, including Pan Asia Metals.

Then, as we move closer to the EV vehicle, there are many new battery manufacturers emerging.

When you build a factory, it becomes more off the shelf. It's more standardised. So, when it comes to mining, each mine is unique.

The chemistry of what comes out of the mine influences the conversion chemical manufacturer. However, once you have a standard product and move downstream into battery production, that becomes fairly standard.

However, all aspects of the supply chain are very active. They do have periods of low sentiment, but when compared to almost every other industry in the world, electrification and electric vehicles are doing very well.

• How many different types of EV batteries are there nowadays?

There are two kinds of EV batteries. This is quite technical. The first type contains lithium as well as three other important metals: nickel, cobalt, and manganese. As a result, it is known as Lithium-Nickel-Manganese-Cobalt-Oxide (LiNiMnCoO2), abbreviated as NMC, and is not environmentally friendly.

The other type of battery is known as a Lithium Iron Phosphate Battery, or LFP. These are much better batteries, and they were the original form of lithium Ion batteries. The battery is completely secure. They have no real environmental issues. They don't have as much range yet, but that is changing. So there's a lot of focus on.

However, these batteries are gaining popularity because they are less expensive and safer for the environment.

Meanwhile, they're much safer to use, and stability issues are improving.

 

• What is the state of the Southeast Asian battery industry?

There is already a lot of manufacturing in Southeast Asia, and many companies come to Thailand and Malaysia in particular because they have complex industrial economies.

However, the Vietnamese and Indonesian governments are also vying for a piece of the action.

So there's a lot of emphasis on value addition there, particularly from Indonesia, which has nickel.

Then there was the recent listing of VinFast in Vietnam on Nasdaq, which was extremely positive. That means their industry is expanding as well.

Still, Thailand and Malaysia are the two main focal points, and I believe Thailand is the most important.

The reason for this is that the country is already the largest car manufacturer in the Southeast Asia region, and the government wishes to maintain that position.

Besides, I recently read a Harvard Industrial Complexity Index that ranked Thailand 23rd, the highest score it's ever received, except for Singapore.

I would say that Thailand leads Southeast Asia, which suggests that a lot of industry is coming into Thailand to get involved in the EV and battery space, as well as many other S-curve industries.

 

• What economic value does Thailand's lithium exploration effort have?

Exploration is the development of natural resources. When we conduct exploration, we identify minerals or potential mineral areas, which become part of the country's resource base. Since we cannot see everything, that information can later be used by other exploration companies.

If we go into mining, the value that mining brings in creates its own economy. So, if you look at any mine, a township and an economy will develop around that mine. The benefit of mining is that it brings economic activity to the region.

So you have your mine, and then you have these periphery services attached to it. Actually, mining communities are generally quite wealthy because the mine is self-sustaining once it begins and employs people, employees, services, and so on. Then it starts to grow.

 

• How much potential does Thailand's lithium mine have?

Lithium mining in Thailand is on a very small scale in comparison to the global industry. It would be enough to contribute to Thailand's goal of producing batteries and automobiles.

However, other lithium chemicals would have to be imported in order to serve the export sector.

Pan Asia Metals’ first full project in Thailand will be the RK Lithium project in southern Thailand.

 

• What is PAM's role?

PAM's goal is to identify project areas with economically viable lithium sources that is economically extractable and then produce midstream chemicals to supply to the producers.

The members of the Pan Asia Metal Company have been involved in various aspects of mine development and funding.

We will be focusing on mining and producing chemicals full battery production.

 

• What is the most difficult aspect of the mining industry?

Everything is a challenge for mining companies because each project has a number of variables.

The key factors would be the social environment community as well as the metallurgy of the mine. Many mines will conduct extensive feasibility studies only to discover that they do not work due to a flaw in the chemical conversion process.

So making a mine work in order to find the right mineralisation is extremely difficult, and then it is difficult to finance a mine because mining is much riskier, and it is much more difficult to finance, and build a mine.

On the other hand, when it comes to batteries and electric vehicles, anyone with enough money can build these plants.

• How can mining and sustainability go together?

Sustainability is now at the heart of nearly every manufacturing, particularly in the automotive industry.

The global electrification of battery and electric vehicle manufacturers revolves primarily around sustainability.

So, everything we do must be sustainable, and a big part of that begins with carbon neutrality. If we are carbon neutral, this is passed down the supply chain to the final product.

However, our social and community networks are also important components of sustainability. So, in order to build a project today, you must involve your community and ensure that they benefit from the mine.

When we look at a project and spend time developing our studies, the first thing that comes to mind is community. How will this affect the community? We believe that if the community can thrive, so will we. Everything will thrive as long as the community does.

 

• How would PAM help Thailand maintain its position as the “Detroit of Asia”?

There are two aspects.

One is PAM helps Thailand with strategic metal security because we are producing strategic metals here.

We will also be building conversion factories, which will enable the country to import raw materials and processes.

And that will also help Thailand secure its position in the lithium supply chain. So, the RK Lithium project effectively is a beachhead for Thailand into lithium chemical production.

Meanwhile, PAM now aims to work with one or two of the large chemical companies here to achieve that.

 

• What is Pan Asia Metals’ plan for the next three to five years?

Well, by the beginning of 2025, we should be starting to build a mine in Thailand. Pan Asia Metals is also very active in other jurisdictions.

So, we have very large exploration holdings in Chile and that's to the idea there is to mine and produce lithium chemicals. And ultimately, we want to bring a refined product. So, we go through partial refining and actually bring it into Southeast Asia.

We want to be a large midstream lithium chemical producer.